Thae Yong Ho on the Wuhan virus and public health in North Korea

[soryang]

(Source- 태영호TV -ThaeYongHoTV, 2.2.2020) "South Korean - North Korean collaborative handling is the best and easiest method."

Sanctions, privatization, and "self sufficient" agriculture in North Korea will promote the spread of coronavirus according to Thae Yong Ho. With virtually no fertilizer or fuel due to sanctions, farmers and others use excrement for fertilizer, and have animals living with them in their living quarters.

Uncharacteristically for the outspoken opponent of the North Korean dictatorship, Thae recommended cooperation by South Korea and the international community, in order to provide equipment and facilities and organization to contain the Wuhan virus. He said the North Korean public health resources are wholly inadequate to cope with the health care challenge and noted the spread of the Asian swine flu virus across the DMZ into South Korea last year as proof of Northern incapacity.

Thae said that it was necessary for the North's communist leader to swallow his pride and request assistance.

In today's analysis, Thae points out the Chinese are the airway for North Korea in a time when sanctions restrict access to resources and capital. This is the peak season for smuggling across the Tumen and Amur rivers for the Jangmajang private enterpreneurs in North Korea, when the rivers are frozen. According to Thae the border guards and army will not be able to stop the smuggling across the northern frontier to bring Chinese goods to the private marketplaces. So the official quarantine at the border from China will not be effective. In addition there is North Korea's lack of public health facilities, equipment, supplies and skills will make definitive identification, diagnosis and treatment of any of those infected difficult.


(Source - [태영호TV]-ThaeYongHoTV [북핵외교 심층분석]-Nuclear Diplomacy-Ep-8 김정은의 신종 코로나작전, 한국의 대응은? 2.3.10) The unfavorable Wuhan virus, "but a good opportunity for peace on the Korean peninsula is also possible."

Due to the state of chronic malnutrition among workers and children, immune systems are weakened, and recovery from infection will be problematic. According to Thae if the epidemic penetrates to the heart of North Korea, Kim is concerned that the military could collapse. Construction projects which heavily depend on concentrations of manual labor both from the Army and civilians will need to be stopped. The party policy of reviving the economy by self reliant methods and the "frontal breakthrough" policy are in jeopardy of complete failure per Thae. In fact, he says it is all but certain.

The official closing of the North Korean border with China cuts off both the tourist trade and the export of labor both of which supply dearly needed foreign cash. Kim is actually in a position of supplication to China at this point. Awkwardly, he has officially stopped international commerce because of the Wuhan virus but at the same time he is hat in hand, asking China for continued financial support. A preferable alternative according to Thae is to turn to the South for the assistance. Kim needs to cope with the Wuhan virus which North Korea is otherwise incapable of responding to as a practical matter because of sanctions and diplomatic isolation. In this episode, Thae recommended that the South Korean government take the initiative and offer to assist North Korea with the public health challenges presented. While China and North Korea may be as "close as lips and teeth," as the Chinese saying goes, it is the Korean people who are family in fact, and should work together to resolve the situation. Thae acknowledges that the offers of assistance cannot take place in the absence of an admission that the assistance of the South is necessary to meet the needs of North Korean citizens, and this will be instrumental in moving North Korea off the dime in terms of a peaceful future for Korea.

One added benefit from the South Korean right wing perspective, beside the prospect of undermining North Korean domestic legitimacy in this situation, is that regardless of the North Korean response, unilateral offers of assistance from the South will no doubt be subject to widespread criticism by the right wing media of South Korea, and US media, in a key period before the April 15 general elections. So, such recommendation, if followed, for the sake of improved dialogue on the peninsula and the chance to actually improve the public health situation, peninsula wide, could present multiple ongoing opportunities for heavy criticism by right wing opposition in South Korea. Taking advantage of pandemic panic could turn the public discussion away from the other significant achievements by the current democratic administration in South Korea.

[emmaverybo]

1. I hope there are people left in NK for the peace. My God how horribly Kim treats his people.

[Backseat Driver]

2. With all concern for those civilians in desperate straits in NK,

sounds a lot like "come into my parlor, said the spider to the fly..." So--Kim ran to China, hat in hand, did he, instead of to his equally reprehensible BFF lover while also sending a family-value sob story to SK?

Guess the whole elite world laughed at what an "emerging pathogen" might mean where sanitation goes by the wayside in favor of "self-sufficiency" and now NK's "protective" military may collapse...Yeah, right...it keeps Kim up all day and night.

I know where I'd fling the feces!

[soryang]

3. "First Do No Harm" - The Impact of Sanctions on Public Health in North Korea

Last edited Mon Feb 10, 2020, 02:50 AM - Edit history (1)

Interview with a professional who knows something about North Korean health care on Dec. 19, before the new coronavirus epidemic became widely known. ( A chart in the Lancet showed the first case Dec. 1. 2019. )

“First Do No Harm.” The Impact of Sanctions on Public Health in North Korea
Kee B. Park and Haeyoung Kim

January 15, 2020
Volume 18 | Issue 2 | Number 3
Article ID 5338
Kee B. Park, MD, MPH, is a lecturer on Global Health and Social Medicine and Director of the Korea Health Policy Project at Harvard Medical School. He also serves as Director of the North Korea Programs at the Korean American Medical Association, and has led over 20 delegations to North Korea since 2007 to work alongside and collaborate with North Korean doctors in the DPRK. Dr. Park obtained his medical degree from Rutgers University, trained in neurosurgery at the Temple University Hospital in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and earned a Master of Public Health from Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

Abstract

Korea Policy Institute (KPI) Executive Board Member Haeyoung Kim spoke with Dr. Kee Park on December 9, 2019 about his work in the DPRK, the unique features of the North Korean health system, and how geopolitics, above all the US travel ban and sanctions on trade impact public health and human security in North Korea. Dr. Park documents the severe challenges to health care in North Korea, the surprising strengths of the health system, and the contributions of a small group of American physicians of Korean descent in aiding health care in North Korea over the past twelve years.


[Haeyoung Kim] Dr. Park, can you begin by sharing with us a bit about your personal background and how you came to be one of the few American doctors providing health care in North Korea?

More:

https://apjjf.org/2020/2/Park.html